Working mothers of teenagers know why animals eat their young. A blog about squeezing one around the other.

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Tuesday, 10 March 2009

Yes but no but yes but no!

I promise this will be my last post on the subject. But being a writer and having a teenage son, I've been a bit consumed with the Myerson affair.

Remember Vicky Pollard? Of course you do!

Yesterday someone advised Julie Myerson to hit back and appear on Newsnight to answer accusations of exploiting her son for literary (read financial) gain. This is what happened when she was hauled up in front of Paxman.

It's exactly like watching an upmarket Vicky Pollard! Everything from the impenetrable rant to the wavering off subject and self-justification to the flapping hands. I haven't been so embarrassed for someone since I saw Sarah Brightman in a negligee wafting round a piano playing Andrew Lloyd Webber.

6 comments:

I have read and heard so much about this issue over the last few days and it's only now, after seeing your link to Newsnight, that I've come to a conclusion (for what it's worth) and I think Julie Myerson did the right thing. Living with addiction in your family (drink, drugs, gambling) is so, so difficult and I rather admire her for bringing it out in the open so controversially. I could never admit to the world that my son was addicted to anything (he isn't)but there is addiction in my family and it tears you apart. Tough love, then unconditional love, then a mixture of both: nothing works. Picking them up from hospital, not hearing from them for weeks, promises, broken promises, breaking the heart of those who love them and watching others begging them to stop is absolutely heartwrending. Considering the amount of emotion Julie must be feeling (I would be sobbing in front of Paxman) I thought she did a very good job of defending herself. Nothing else has stopped Jake from using skunk, perhaps the book will?

I totally respect your point of view Helen. Not to get into ner-ner type situation but there is addiction in my family too, and I have sympathy for the truly terrible plight of a parent with an addicted child. But I don't think that going public in a book to which she (so far) is retaining all the profits is going to help him. She would have done herself more good if she'd donated some of the profits of the book into an addiction charity.

Good point. I suppose I have that 'It'll all work out in the end' optimism and Jake will say when he's 35, married with children: "If my mum hadn't written that book I don't know what would have happened to me..." Clutching at straws? Maybe.

And thank you for your comment on my earlier blog back in November. Once I've finished this book I will revisit the comedy drama that my friend Ros and I wrote and see if we think it is as truly terrible as the BBC said! (We were particularly aggrieved by the 'upper class' comments; we thought our characters were simply 'obnoxious with money'.

I think JM would have been better maintaining a dignified silence on the subject to be honest. What with the embarrassing interviews, and her husband's piece in The Guardian, I think they've done more harm than good!